Change of venue for Willits murder defendant denied

A Willits man accused of torturing and killing his 84-year-old grandfather goes to trial next week in Mendocino County Superior Court after a judge on Thursday denied the defense's request to move the trial to another county.

Very little information was released about the case as it moved through court over the last two years, Judge John Behnke said in his remarks on the defense's motion for a change of venue, which claimed Wilkinson couldn't get a fair trial in Mendocino County because of public reaction to ongoing media coverage of the case. He said there was also no reason to believe the media had tainted Mendocino County's jury pool.

"I don't believe either the defendant or the victim is high-profile in this case; they're not political figures or socially active; there are no corruption overtones," Behnke said of his reasons for denying the motion. "The news coverage has not been particularly graphic or inflammatory.... This is certainly a grave offense, and I imagine that wherever it is tried it will generate publicity."

Kenneth Wilkinson, 24, could face life in prison without parole if he is convicted of killing his grandfather, Richard Mel Wilkinson, and a special circumstance that he tortured the elder Wilkinson by dragging him behind a pickup truck for nearly six miles on the night of March 17, 2012, according to the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office.

Mendocino County Public Defender Linda Thompson, who represents Wilkinson, last month called "hostile and vitriolic" the comments she'd seen posted at the ends of online news reports about the case, and said many commenters had already decided Wilkinson was "evil."

Behnke said he had read the news articles Thompson had attached to her motion with an eye for detailed information in the reports and anything that could be "inflammatory" to a jury.

Behnke rejected the motion without prejudice, meaning Thompson can renew it if things change as potential jurors are interviewed. Jury selection begins Monday, and could take up to three days.

Also on Thursday, Behnke granted Mendocino County Assistant District Attorney Paul Sequeira's request that the jury get to see first-hand the route Wilkinson took when he allegedly dragged his grandfather to his death. Wilkinson drove the pickup truck from his aunt and uncle's East Hill Road home to where sheriff's detectives found his grandfather's body apparently dumped down a steep, brushy Pine Mountain hillside across Mariposa Creek Road from the home of his mother's boyfriend.

The jurors will ride in a van along the route, which includes several switchbacks along the narrow, winding, dirt-and-rock Mariposa Creek Road, which winds through mountain forest dotted with campers and trailers set back from the road.

Sequeira called the route "confusing" on paper and "impossible" to recreate with pictures in court.

The elder Wilkinson was alive when his grandson allegedly dragged him along that route behind the truck, according to Sequeira, and allowing the jury to see how hard it is to navigate the winding roads is key.

"I've got to prove (that the defendant inflicted) prolonged, extreme pain and suffering on the victim," Sequeira said, referring to the torture allegation against Wilkinson.

"There's no way to appreciate the length of the trip without doing it. There's six miles as the crow flies and there's six miles on the roadway. It's not possible to duplicate it."

Cases where the jury visits the crime scene are rare, according to Sequeira, who said he had seen it happen twice in his career.

Citing Thompson's defense that Wilkinson was under the influence of a combination of methamphetamine, bath salts and alcohol at the time, Sequeira said he also wanted the jury to get a sense of what Wilkinson's level of mental functioning would have to have been to drive the "very complicated" route.

The term "bath salts" refers to a synthetic drug containing an amphetamine-like substance, and has been known to cause psychotic behavior and violence, according to health experts.

Thompson said Wilkinson routinely drove the six-mile route to his stepfather's house. His familiarity with the route "is not indicative of his ability to make rational decisions," she said.

The prosecution, Thompson said, also has to prove Wilkinson meant to harm his grandfather.

"He believed his grandfather was deceased before he began that ride behind the truck," Thompson said.

The trial is expected to take three weeks, including two or three days to select a jury.

Thompson said previously that she will play for the jury a recording of a conversation between Wilkinson and two law enforcement officers on a long drive, during which the officers were asking him where his grandfather was, to show his mental state at the time of the crime.

Sequeira also asked for and was granted a motion that the court order expert witnesses to limit their testimony to what's allowed by law.

The doctor Thompson hired to evaluate Wilkinson -- who was believed to be schizophrenic when he was jailed -- wrote a report that included what Sequeira called "legal conclusions" about Wilkinson's intentions.

"I just want to make sure he's not going to try to get in through the back door what he can't get in through the front door," Sequeira said.

Tiffany Revelle can be reached at udjtr@ukiahdj.com, on Twitter @TiffanyRevelle or at 468-3523.